Nikon Coolpix S6 Review

Image Quality

All of the sample images in this Review were taken using
the 6M Fine mode, which gives an average image size of around
1.5-2.5Mb.

Noise

There are 4 ISO settings available on the Nikon Coolpix S6
which you can select at any time if the camera is in the normal
shooting mode. Here are some 100% crops which show the noise
levels for each ISO setting:

ISO 50 (100% crop)

ISO 100 (100% crop)

ISO 200 (100% crop)

ISO 400 (100% crop)

There is virtually no discernible noise at the slowest settings
of ISO 80 and 100, and ISO 200 isn't too bad at all. The fastest
speed of ISO 400 has obvious noise but is fine if you are
only making small sized prints.

Sharpening

Here are two 100% crops which have been Saved as Web - Quality
50 in Photoshop. The right-hand image has had some sharpening
applied in Photoshop. The out-of-the camera images are a little
bit soft at the default sharpening setting and benefit from
some further sharpening in a program like Adobe Photoshop.
Unfortunately you can't change the in-camera sharpening level.

Original
100% Crop

Sharpened 100% Crop

File Quality

The Nikon Coolpix S6 has 2 different image quality settings
available, with High being the highest quality option. Here
are some 100% crops which show the quality of the various
options, with the file size shown in brackets.

6M
High (2.23Mb)

6M
Normal (1.00Mb)

Chromatic Aberrations

The Nikon Coolpix S6 handled chromatic aberrations very well
during the review, with limited purple fringing present around
the edges of objects in certain high-contrast situations,
usually at the edges of the photograph. The test images also
revealed that the S6 is not at all sharp in the corners at
the 35mm wide-angle lens setting, as also shown in the examples
below.

Example
1

Example
2

Macro

The Nikon Coolpix S6 offers a Macro setting that allows you
to focus on a subject that is 4cms away from the camera when
the lens is set to tele-photo. The first image shows how close
you can get to the subject (in this case a compact flash card).
The second image is a 100% crop.

Macro Shot (click to view
full-sized image)

100% Crop

Flash

The flash settings on the Nikon Coolpix S6 are Auto, Auto
with Red-eye Reduction, Flash Cancel, Anytime Flash and Slow
Sync. These shots of a magnolia coloured wall were taken at
a distance of 1.5m.

Flash Off - Wide Angle (35mm)

Auto Flash - Wide Angle (35mm)

Flash Off - Telephoto (105mm)

Auto Flash - Telephoto (105mm)

And here are some shots of yours truly. As you can see, neither
the Flash On setting and the Red-Eye Reduction option caused
any red-eye.

Flash On

Flash On (100% Crop)

Flash - Red-Eye Reduction

Flash - Red-Eye Reduction (100%
Crop)

Night Shot

The Nikon Coolpix S6's maximum shutter speed is 8 seconds
in the Night Landscape scene mode, which is fairly good news
if you're seriously interested in night photography. Less
helpful is the fact that you can't set the aperture or ISO
speed in this scene mode, and the S6 always seems to set a
large aperture and fast ISO speed to get the fastest shutter
speed possible, which isn't well suited to landscape photos.
The shot below was taken using a shutter speed of 2 seconds
at f/5.8 at ISO 200. I've included a 100% crop of the image
to show what the quality is like (not very good).

Night Shot (click to view
full-sized image)

100% Crop

D-Lighting

D-Lighting lightens under-exposed parts of the image whilst
ensuring that correctly exposed parts remain the same (and
are not also lightened). This basically balances the shadows
and highlights in a high-contrast image, for example a scene
that includes deep black shadows and a bright white sky. D-Lighting
is selected by pressing the One Touch Portrait button when
an image is played back, so it is applied after the image
has been recorded. The Nikon Coolpix S6 processes a copy of
the image (which takes around 6 seconds) so that some areas
of the photograph are lightened and some are left as they
are. Here are some examples which show the effects of using
the D-Lighting feature, showing that it works well, although
there is extra noise in the images that have had D-Lighting
applied to them:

D-Lighting - Off

D-Lighting - On

D-Lighting - Off

D-Lighting - On

Overall Image Quality

The Nikon Coolpix S6 produced images of above average quality
during the review period. The 6 megapixel images were a little
soft straight out of the camera at the default sharpening
setting and ideally require some further sharpening in an
application like Adobe Photoshop. The Nikon Coolpix S6 dealt
well with chromatic aberrations, with limited purple fringing
appearing only in high contrast situations and at the edge
of the frame. Macro performance is above average, allowing
you to focus as close as 4cms away from the subject. The built-in
flash worked well indoors, with no red-eye and fairly good
overall exposure. The night photograph was a weak point, with
the maximum shutter speed of 8 seconds in the Night Landscape
scene mode not being that versatile. The D-Lighting feature
works very well with the right images, balancing out the shadow
and highlight areas nicely, although at the expense of introducing
extra noise. The Nikon Coolpix S6 handled noise quite well.
The 1/2.5 inch, 6 megapixel sensor used in the Nikon Coolpix
S6 produces noise-free images at ISO 80 and ISO 100, with
ISO 200 looking good and even ISO 400 proving quite usable
for smaller prints.

PhotographyBLOG
is a member of the DIWA
organisation. Our test results for the Nikon Coolpix S6 have
been submitted to DIWA
for comparison with test results for different samples of
the same camera model supplied by other DIWA
member sites.

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